Hike Boundary Peak and Montgomery Peak Inyo National Forest, NV

Oct 19, 2019 — Boundary Peak, the highest point in Nevada, is an unranked bump on the way to Mongomery Peak, which is a higher-pominence mountain just over the California border. I also took a quick detour to bag Trail Canyon Saddle Peak along the way up to Boundary Peak. This hike is another long-lived item on my to-do list, so I was really looking forward to the trip. I was skeptical about taking my car farther than I did, so I left it at the remains of an old mining site and continued up the road, which was steep but in good shape, except for the spot where I gave up. Low clearance would have difficulty getting to even where I did. If you can drive to the official trailhead, you'll be able to knock off about 800 vertical gain and a couple of miles from the day.

From the official trailhead, the Queen Canyon Trailhead, the Boundary Peak Trail was very easy to follow. It follows a gorgeous ridge, and I had to stop and gawk for a moment when Boundary Peak came into view. It's unlike any desert peak I've seen to date, and the lighting was really dramatic. The trail keeps south of Trail Canyon Saddle Peak, but a social trail diverges to head up to its minor summit. More great views of Boundary Peak from the top. I continued down the steep south slope of Trail Canyon Saddle Peak and began up the well-traveled route up Boundary Peak. The scree and dirt is minimal, despite how it appeared from farther away. The trail is just so well-traveled that the majority of the loose stuff has been kicked away. After a fair amount of huffing and getting blown over by intense wind, I made it to a false summit, where I followed the ridge south a bit more. The trail was still really great, and I kept right as the ridge became rocky and loose. Social trails seem to lead to the left (east), but keep to the right around rock outcrops. Eventually I got to Boundary Peak, and scoped out the somewhat sketchy-looking ridge to Mongomery Peak.

The ridge to Montgomery Peak overall wasn't bad, despite its crumbly appearance from Boundary Peak's summit. A couple of loose Class 3 moves near the saddle were cause for a teeny bit of thought, but a lot of it can be avoided if you stay to the left of the ridge crest. A bunch more Class 2+ stuff leads to the summit, social trails and other erosion marking the way. There is one extremely steep section a couple hundred feet below the summit that I needed to navigate around. Views of the Sierra and White Mountain Peak from the summit were nice.